October 2015
I’m currently
participating in an online international conference on using hypnosis in the
treatment of depression. We listen or watch or read several presentations, ask
questions, attend coaching calls where we talk about cases, theories and
approaches, and ask more questions. I’m gathering, expanding, deepening my
understanding of things, which only helps those I work with, and also layers on
more dimensions to the work I do, which is very satisfying.
I am thus moved to write more about hypnotherapy and how it works, because I
think such knowledge is invaluable.
Hypnotherapy, or
hypnosis as the Americans call it, is nothing like the hypnosis dished up to
audiences attending the latest stage show. It, or I, cannot make a person do
anything they have no desire to do, and what’s more, what happens in a session
doesn’t involve giving up your conscious awareness nor handing over the control
of you to me. This is anathema to the healing principles of any good therapy.
Change comes from within you, from
your conscious and non conscious processes. Hypnotherapy is a therapy of
change.
Hypnotherapy provides
a wonderful context for moving beyond problems a person might have. The dynamic
of a problem is a seemingly endless looping, around and around, with the same
thing going over and over in your head, something that doesn’t seem to be
solvable just by thinking about it. Indeed, the repeated thoughts, or habits,
or whatever it is that dominates a person’s life creates a sort of inflexible
space from which escape seems practically impossible. Hypnotherapy can help
move a person out of this inflexible space and into fluidity and a certain joyfulness.
Hypnotherapy
facilitates, in a relaxed and yet aware state our mood, freeing and amplifying
positive mood states, as well as giving us access to ways of more flexible thinking and feeling in
the future. Hypnotherapy is thus both a present and future oriented treatment.
What might be honed in on during a session can become tools for what happens
tomorrow, next week, and the rest of your life.
There are several
components of a hypnotherapeutic session. One is dissociation, while another is association,
while a third is suggestion, and
others. In the dissociative state the
person doesn’t know how to produce hypnotic phenomena (eg creating an
analgesia) by deliberate means, but can produce the desired effect with no
awareness of how she did so. These processes are typically described as latent,
or unconscious, and they point to the enormous resources we have at our
disposal, though we generally don’t know we have them. Think here of amazing stories of people
finding in themselves enormous strength when faced with catastrophic events and
getting out of these situations alive. In association,
connections are made between apparently unrelated skills and experiences,
connecting the dots, as it were, so that moving forward makes sense. Suggestion is the added idea offered to the client to
ameliorate change in their take on their life. It might be, say, for giving up
smoking, that the cigarette tastes disgusting, like a rubbish bin, and that you
have no desire to keep it in your mouth a moment longer but rip it out, crush
it underfoot, and throw it away. Dissociation, association and suggestion
already shift the way you think about things, and introduce into the mix,
knowledges you didn’t realize you had.
When you enter the relaxed
and yet focused state that is the hypnotic trance, many things become possible.
Changes are already happening to move a person out of the fixed state of a
problem so that things can be better managed or removed altogether. The kind of
problems beautifully worked on cover: pain management, anaesthesia, anxiety and
panic attacks, depression, low self esteem, social anxiety and poor coping
skills, problem solving skills, artistic and athletic skills, eating problems,
sleeping problems, smoking, increasing mindfulness and relaxation, etc.
A series of
hypnotherapy sessions provides a zone, for experiential and behavioural change and entering into the
zone is a pleasant experience: it’s safe, secure, comfortable, and usually
easy. I have a special chair that
extends to a soft, supportive, wonderful couch. I call it the magic chair, for
it is a tool in the furniture of change. Each session is tailored to each
person and I do not use scripts, so I am present with you every inch of the way.
You are unique and I work from where you are and what engages you, for
engagement is the cornerstone of hypnotherapy. This is the context of learning,
this is the zone.
